Current work and interests

Trish Muzenda is a PhD Student in the Global Diet and Physical Activity Research Group and a Vital Strategies Healthy Food Policy Fellow. She is supervised by Dr Tolullah Oni. Her research work focuses on understanding how governance, environmental factors and consumer behaviour interact to shape and influence the obesogenicity of informal food retail in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts.

Background and experience

Trish holds a BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology (Rhodes University, South Africa), BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry (Rhodes University), and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (University of Cape Town, South Africa). Prior to commencing her PhD, Trish was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town’s Research Initiative for Cities Health and Equity (RICHE). There she worked on a project exploring opportunities to leverage urban green infrastructure and development initiatives for health creation, a literature review of the tools and techniques used to map and characterise food and physical activity environments in LMICs, a synthesis of the epidemiological tools used in measuring LMIC adolescent food and physical activity behaviour, as well as an exploratory study on the experiences and potential for intersectoral collaboration in addressing health and housing issues in Doula, Cameroon.

Trish’s work is motivated by the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa faces a myriad of interconnected and complex urban health challenges that require transdisciplinary and intersectoral efforts to understand their causes whilst simultaneously developing feasible solutions to address them.